Guizhou Weng’an County’s phosphate mining area of the Ediacaran stratigraphy, which was discovered 19 years ago, has been found to have the world’s oldest paleontological fossils (about 106 million years old). In recent years, however, large-scale mining activities have been developing the area. As a result, the fossils have been sold as phosphate fertilizer. The scientists from many countries in the world were stunned; they stood up and issued the most serious warnings (about such mining).

“Weng’an Biota not only belongs to Weng’an; it also belongs to China and to all of mankind. The whole world’s attention is on it. The action is irreversible and the fossils are an irreplaceable and precious natural heritage. The outcome should not just be a few bags of phosphate fertilizer.” Top archaeological and paleontology scholars from China, the United States, Britain, and other countries recently gathered at the Beidou Mountain phosphate mining site in Weng’an County and appealed to the Chinese authorities.

Zhu Maoyan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, said, “Last November we already found the problem very serious. We located three sites still having research value as retention sites, but when we had an onsite inspection on April 1, one of the sites had already disappeared. It’s completely gone.”